Saying goodbye to a family member or friend as they move forward in their life is always a bittersweet moment. It is that time of year at Laconia when we must say goodbye and thank you to our latest team of interns.

We run a paid part-time intern year-round, either for an academic semester, a full academic year, or a summer season. Our internship program has been widely successful, attracting talented students from NYU, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Brown, UMich, and Rutgers, among others. In addition to intellectual curiosity, exceptional work ethic, and adaptable skills, they have all brought to the table a genuine passion for technology, entrepreneurship, and venture capital investing. Numerous former interns have gone on to pursue full-time opportunities at other venture capital firms and Laconia portfolio companies, with one former intern even re-joining Laconia full-time. Our interns are among the firm’s strongest ambassadors, often referring future candidates and budding entrepreneurs.

Our program fully immerses the interns in the inner workings of a venture capital firm, providing extensive first-hand exposure to all aspects of the work required. In preparation for the program, they read Ventures Deals by Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson, review Laconia’s Private Placement Memorandum, and become familiar with our portfolio companies. While with us, they are involved in deal flow & sourcing, due diligence, portfolio support, industry research projects, marketing, and operational support. We treat our interns as associates, and, in return, we get hardworking, smart thinking, and creative minds who allow our small team to accomplish so much.

We are strong believers in compensating them for their work along with providing them with a platform to learn, grow, and explore. Internship programs are great vehicles to allow young adults to dip a toe in the real world so they better understand the direction they want to take and the skill they need to develop. Payment extends access rather than limiting the field to only those who can afford to work for free.

I end this by saying goodbye to Jodie Miller and Ravi Shah and wish them all the best as they graduate and head off to PwC Strategy& and IA Capital respectively. They were stars and will be sorely missed. The good news is that as one door closes, another opens, and, with that, we welcome Naomi Grossman and Addison Huneycutt to the Laconia family - we can’t wait to see what you will create here!